The behavior of microcalorimeters lies between that of true adiabatic or bomb calorimeters and isothermal calorimeters. The location between these extremes depends upon a compromise involving many criteria but most importantly, time constant and sensitivity. The use of an R-C model of the system and Laplace transform techniques will allow us to study the transient behavior of the system to a variety of inputs, and to achieve optimized performance for specific applications of the calorimeter.